It's Not Christmas Yet
by Savantasaurus
Summary: Dave teases Emily about her means of windshield frost removal, then offers her something better. Much better. Short, unbeta'd, and unfinished.
1. September

**A/N:** Written for the cmrossiprentiss Fall Classic at LJ. My prompt was _frost_. This is unbeta'd, and it shows. There is a second part in the works, it's just not finished yet.

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><p>They had been gone for two weeks on a case in central Florida. DC had a light freeze the night before, and the cool, crisp air that greeted them back home was a welcome change from the 80° days down south. Hotch gave them the rest of the day off and didn't expect any reports until the next day, so the team rushed to get home. Dave was on his way to his truck when he spotted Emily doing...something. He stopped next to her car, where she was bent over the hood scraping away at the frost on the windshield with what looked like her driver's license. Dave raised an eyebrow and huffed out a quiet laugh.<p>

"What are you doing?"

Emily straightened up and turned around, wiping the line of frost on her license onto her coat. "What? You've never done this before?"

Dave shook his head. "Can't say I have. A while back someone invented something specifically for that very task. You should get one."

Emily rolled her eyes. "One of the many things I forgot to repurchase when I got back."

"Wait here," Dave said. He walked a few spaces down to his truck and opened the passenger side. After a few short moments of rummaging behind the seat, he pulled out what he was looking for and brought it back to Emily. "Here, use this. It's heated and will get that off faster."

"Oooh, aren't we fancy?" She took the scraper from him and went back to work clearing the windshield.

"If you're nice, maybe I'll get you one for Christmas."

Emily moved around her car, scraping at the driver's side and back windows before moving on to the rear window. "I was hoping for something a little more expensive," she said, giving him a wink.

Dave smiled at her. "I'll spring for one with a brush on the other end for snow removal."

"Wow, you sure know exactly what to get a girl." She handed the scraper back to Dave and shoved her cold hands into her coat pockets.

"You don't want one of these fancy things?" he asked, holding the scraper up like a trophy.

Emily laughed and shook her head. "I'll probably go buy one on the way home. I don't really want to keep using my license to do this till the end of December."

"How about a date instead?"

Emily raised her eyebrows and blinked. A date? With Rossi? After four years, finally a date with Rossi? _'God, please let him be serious...'_ She cleared her throat. "A date?"

"Yeah, a date. You know, dinner and dancing and all that. Don't tell me you've never heard of those, either." He grinned at her.

"Yeah," Emily nodded slowly. "Yeah, I'd like that. But you have to spend more on it than one of those," she said, gesturing her head towards the ice scraper.

"I've got a few months to plan," he said. "I'm sure I can come up with something worth your while."

Emily pouted slightly. Was he _seriously_ going to wait until _Christmas_? What a cruel bastard.

Dave smiled and reached a hand out to brush Emily's hair out of her face. He thought he saw a tinge of red on her cheeks, but it could very well have been from the chill in the air. "You're beautiful, you know that?"

Emily closed her eyes and raised a hand up to touch his. When she opened her eyes again to look at him, he was still smiling. Dave brushed his thumb lightly against her lips and she shivered. From the cold, his touch, whatever it was, she didn't know. She didn't care. All she wanted to do was kiss him. She leaned in ever so slightly.

Dave shook his head and stepped back. "It's not Christmas yet, Emily." He winked at her.

Emily narrowed her eyes at him. "That's just mean," she said, trying so very hard not to smile.

Dave shrugged and turned around and started walking to his truck.

"Really mean!"

"Christmas, Emily!" he called behind him. "Christmas!"


	2. Plastic, Pinot, and Perfection

A/N: This chapter was written for the cmrossiprentiss Advent Calendar on LJ.

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><p>"And what, exactly, is in this for me?" Garcia didn't even look away from her screens and continued clicking away at her keyboard. Rossi had dared to come into her lair while she was busy; obviously what he needed was worth the risk of interrupting her work.<p>

Rossi sighed and rubbed a hand over his beard. "If you just do this one thing for me, _and don't ask any questions about it_, I'll get you anything you want."

The phrase 'anything you want' was one of Garcia's favorite things to hear. She whirled around in her chair and raised an eyebrow up at him. "_Anything?_"

"Within reason."

Penelope licked her brightly-painted lips and grinned. She was never one to try to get anything out of anyone like this, but he sounded as desperate for her help as she was for a new gadget. "Most of my Christmas wishes are already being taken care of, but I just filled up one of my external hard-drives and could use a new one." She quickly jotted some specifications on a Post-It and handed the paper to Rossi. "Absolutely nothing smaller than a terabyte."

"So you'll be able to do this for me? Without looking like you're doing it on purpose?" he asked as he took the paper from her.

Garcia snorted out a huff. "Please. Have you forgotten who I am and what I do? I can make anything look like fate. Don't you worry your handsome head off, I'll take care of everything." She turned her chair back to her monitors and set back to work.

'_I guess that's my cue to leave_.' Dave muttered a quick thank-you and left Penelope's office. Now that he'd bribed her into rigging their team's Secret Santa gift exchange that would take place the following Friday before the team left for vacation, he could concentrate on planning out his date with Emily. As he walked back up the stairs to his own office, he debated between Italian and Indian for their dinner. He knew she loved Italian, but thought it might be cliche as a first date. He had just had the whole team over not too long ago for a night of Italian cooking, anyway. Though, Italian was stable and reliable. Indian was risky. This date was risky. By the time he got to his office he decided to just let Emily decide once he picked her up.

The next week went by slowly. There were no cases, so everyone on the team caught up on their much-neglected paperwork in an effort to give Hotch a merry Christmas. After what seemed like ages, December 23 arrived.

Garcia had taken the liberty of decorating her team's desks and offices with Christmas pleasantries; there were garlands, bells, ornaments, snowmen, reindeer, fake snow, and tinsel everywhere. She had even managed, _somehow_, to get Hotch to wear a reindeer antler headband. She gathered everyone around the group of desks Morgan, Reid, and Prentiss shared to exchange their gifts.

As soon as Emily opened her gift from Dave, she started laughing. Nestled in the silver and gold tissue paper was a windshield scraper. And not just any scraper. _The_ scraper. Morgan looked over her shoulder. "A scraper? Really?" He looked at Rossi and shook his head. "You are made of money and you got the woman a _scraper_?"

"Hey! It's practical! And you're forgetting the fact that we had a mere $30 limit."

"And it sure as hell beats the one I have," Prentiss said.

Remaining presents and holiday hugs were given, and the team packed up and started to make their way out of the bullpen towards the elevators. Penelope smothered Derek and Spencer with kisses on cheeks and tins of homemade Christmas cookies and fudge before letting them leave. She waved at Emily and blew a kiss to Dave before heading back down to her office to shut her station down for the extended holiday weekend. JJ and Hotch were already back in their own offices putting last-minute revisions in reports before sending them off.

Upon closer inspection of her gift from Rossi, Emily noticed something about it.

Emily looked up at Dave and raised an eyebrow. "Isn't this _yours_?"

He grinned at her.

"You gave me a _used_ Christmas present?" Emily was trying very hard not to laugh, but couldn't help smiling at him.

"Check the note under it, Prentiss."

Emily picked the scraper out of the box and set it on her desk. There was a small notecard in the bottom of the box that only had one thing written on it:

_be ready at 8:00_

"A little demanding, don't you think?" she teased, still smiling.

Dave snorted a laugh. "This coming from the woman who doesn't think a really awesome - albeit slightly used - windshield scraper isn't good enough."

"So where are you taking me?" Emily asked curiously.

"The thing about Christmas presents is you're not supposed to know what they are till you get them."

Emily faked an exasperated sigh. "Well how am I supposed to know what to wear?"

"Wear something you wouldn't wear to work," Dave said. He added an oh-so-charming wink for good measure.

"There are a lot of things I wouldn't wear to work, Rossi." Emily swore she could see the slightest tinge of a blush on Dave's face at her remark.

He cleared his throat. "You don't wear enough blue, you know. You look good in blue." He really hoped she had something blue in her closet. She really did look great in the color. The few times he'd seen her in it, she damn near took his breath away. There was something absolutely stunning about her pale skin wrapped in the calming color, her dark hair a bold accent. He was just about to reach out and tuck that gorgeous hair behind her ear when JJ came over to them with a thick file cradled in her arms.

"I hope you guys didn't have any holiday plans, we've got a bad one," JJ's face was knitted with concern. It was pretty obvious this case meant something to her. It had to be something to do with kids.

Emily sighed. "Oh come on, Jayje. You're kidding, right?"

JJ shook her head and gave Emily a sympathetic look. "'fraid not, hun. I couldn't let this one go, not on Christmas. Garcia's already in the process of sending all the information to your iPads. We don't really have time to rally at the round table, so be downstairs quickly. Wheels up in ten." She hustled off down the hall to catch up with the others before they'd left the building, leaving Prentiss and Rossi in the bullpen.

Emily tipped her head back and groaned. It was hard to have a social life with this job. At least this potential romantic partner understood that. Dave picked Emily's go bag up from the floor beneath her desk and set it gently on her shoulder. "I'll meet you downstairs," he said, then made his way to his office to grab his things.

When someone said 'wheels up in ten,' they meant it. In less than ten minutes, the team was ready for take-off. Hotch sat in the back of the plane going over files with JJ, Rossi, and Morgan. Reid and Garcia -who insisted that she absolutely would not be away from her family on Christmas- were already practically asleep, each one's head resting on the other's. Prentiss was slumped down in a seat across the aisle from them.

Cases always came first, especially ones involving children. Emily knew solving this was more important than a date, but she couldn't help but be the slightest bit irritated at the timing. She leaned back in the seat and turned her head to look out the window at the clouds below. In the last few years her feelings for Dave Rossi had evolved from immature schoolgirl infatuation to full-blown sexual, intellectual, and romantic attraction. For the last three months she had been constantly thinking about him and how amazing this date was going to be. '_Well_,' she thought, '_I've been waiting this long, so what's a few more days?_' She was taken out of her reverie by a hand on her shoulder; she turned her head to the source and forced a smile as JJ sat down beside her.

"Did I ruin your weekend?"

Emily shook her head. "This job is more important than my social life," she said.

"Oooh, did someone have a hot holiday date? Do tell."

"There's nothing to tell, it hasn't happened yet."

"He knows that this job is the world's greatest short-notice destroyer of plans, right?"

"Yeah," Emily nodded. "He knows all about it."

JJ smiled. "Then there's no reason to be down about it. You can just go out when we get back home."

"I know, I know. I just really wanted to go _tonight_, not several days from now," Prentiss whined.

"And I want to come home to a spotless house, but I don't think Santa does favors for middle-aged women." JJ stuck her lip out in a pout. "I'm going to grab a cup of coffee, do you want anything?"

"No, I'm good. I'm gonna sleep the rest of the flight." Emily turned back to the clouds outside the window and shifted to get as comfortable as the plane seat would allow as JJ got up to leave. She closed her eyes and let herself drift into a light sleep.

Three hours later, the plane landed in Panama City, Florida. The team groggily made their way off the plane, through the small airport, and into the waiting SUVs. After a boring thirty-minute drive south they found themselves at one of the many hotels on the beach that would serve as home until the case was over. The local police department wasn't expecting them until the next day so Hotch gave them the go-ahead to get settled into their rooms and relax. They were expected back in the lobby at 7:00am sharp.

Rossi mentally took note of Prentiss' room; across the hall and two doors down. He watched her slide the keycard into the lock and open the door, and smiled back at her when she waved good-night before slipping inside and shutting the door.

Luckily, the case was a relatively easy one. The team was able to profile and track down the man responsible for six missing children. At the very least, the parents would be able to have some closure for the holidays. For one single father, having his nine year old daughter back unharmed was the greatest gift he could have asked for. The team wouldn't make the trip back home until the next morning, so they were spending Christmas night on the road. While everyone else stayed down in the hotel bar, Emily sneaked out and went back up to her room to free herself from the noise and relax.

Her departure didn't go unnoticed by Dave. He waited a few minutes then pulled his phone out and texted her.

_you hungry?_

_starving_

_don't go anywhere_

_like i have a choice_

Two minutes passed with no reply, so Emily set her phone on the nightstand and grabbed a book out of her bag. She walked out onto the balcony overlooking the beach and curled herself up in one of the Adirondack chairs. The cool wind blowing in from the Gulf was calming and the view was amazingly serene. She tried reading, but found herself instead looking down at the waves lapping the shore. Even though it was dark and there was a chill in the air, there were still people on the beach. She watched them intently. A man jogged along the surf with his dog. An old couple, well past the age of retirement, walked hand in hand along the dune fences. A younger couple sat in the beach chairs by the boardwalk, every once in a while leaning in close to each other for a kiss. After an hour that only felt like minutes passed by, there was a soft knock at the door. She set her untouched book on the patio table and went inside to answer it.

On the other side of the door was Dave with two large plastic bags in his hands. "Would you believe that absolutely nothing on the beach is open right now?" Emily stood aside to let him in and shut the door behind him. He made his way through her room to the patio doors. "Stay right there," he said. When she opened her mouth to say something, he drew the curtain and slipped out onto the balcony. Emily shrugged to herself and sat down on the bed. She grabbed her phone off the nightstand and thumbed absentmindedly through her apps while she waited for Rossi to finish whatever it was he was doing. A few moments later, he called out to her to come outside.

She drew one of the heavy curtains aside and stepped through onto the balcony. What Dave had done made her jaw drop, and she quickly raised a hand to cover her mouth to keep herself from gasping aloud. This man. This perfect, perfect man, had brought their Christmas date to her hotel room. Small jar candles lined the railing of the patio and a skinny vase with one red rose was placed in the center of the table. A bottle of red wine sat next to the vase. "Dave, this is..." she couldn't find the words.

"Not really what either of us was hoping for, but it'll have to do until we get back," Dave interjected. He nodded down to a bag of take-out. "I hope you like Indian," he said. "The place I got this from had a sign advertising goat for sale. I couldn't tell if they meant an actual live goat or not."

The laugh that escaped Emily's lips kept her from crying the tears that were just about to form. "Goat?"

Rossi let out a quiet laugh of his own. "I wasn't sure if goat was an appropriate first date choice of meat, so I got chicken instead. Jalfrezi and makhani. I was told pinot noir goes great with Indian food. Lucky for us, there are quite a few liquor stores in this area." He pulled two styrofoam take-out boxes out of the bag, along with two sets of plastic cutlery and cups. "You'll have to excuse the tableware tonight," he added. He poured wine in both of the cups and handed one to Emily. He raised his own to her and smiled. As far from what he had originally planned as this was, this moment was perfect. He stood there, watching as she took a sip of wine, admiring her. Even with hardly any sleep, no make-up, and wearing a tank top and flannel pajama pants she was absolutely beautiful.

Emily set the cup down on the table and raised her eyebrows questioningly. "What are you staring at?"

"Not staring," Rossi said. "Just looking." He set his own cup down beside hers and took a step forward. "Just..." he raised his hands up to cup either side of her face before continuing, "looking." He watched her eyes flutter closed and bent his head down to kiss her. Soft and gentle. Slow and longing.

_Perfect_.


End file.
